Walk With Me In Hell
by imawesome1124
Summary: After an attack on Jackson takes away someone who Joel loved, he sets out on a daring quest for revenge, but gets much more than he bargained for. When his journey ultimately ends in catastrophe, he must learn to look for a reason to live even in the darkest times he's ever known.
1. CH 1: On The Warpath

**Author's Notes: Surprise! I've started another TLOU story. This is actually an idea I've had for a while, but never saw an opportunity to use it. I've decided to put it to use by writing another fanfiction. **

**Before I say anything else, I regret to say that A World Scorned is dead. I simply lost motivation for it. I'm disappointed to let all of my ideas go to waste, but the reception was far more underwhelming than I was hoping for, and I didn't feel like it was worth it. As much as I liked my characters, I just couldn't get attached to them like I did Joel and Ellie, which is probably why I lost motivation. So, I've decided to start another journey with my two favorite characters.**

**I'm sure many of you are familiar with my first fanfiction, Brand New Start. This story is NOT connected with that one; they are completely separate stories. Much like how Brand New Start's title came from a song, the title of this story comes from a song of the same name by the metal band Lamb Of God. While the song doesn't really have anything to do with the themes in this story, the title is relevant. This story is my take on how a sequel involving these two characters could play out. There will be a lot of moments in this story where I will try and capture the feel of the gameplay, from stealthing the enemies, scouring for supplies, and many other nuances of the gameplay. There will also be a pun book moment or two, so that's exciting.**

**I would also like to announce that I have a much bigger project going on. For the past two and a half months I have been working on an original novel, which I have over 40,000 words for. Details will remain secret, but the basic premise is that it's a coming-of-age story in the form of a fictional musician telling his life story as he's getting ready for a gig on the five year anniversary of an event that shattered his life. It will possibly be even sadder than Brand New Start was, as hard as that may be to believe. I will keep you all updated as I make progress on that.**

**That's enough from me. Who's excited to start another journey with Joel and Ellie? I'm assuming all of you are, so enjoy the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Last Of Us or the characters, except the ones I introduce. All credit goes to Naughty Dog.**

* * *

Walk With Me in Hell

CH. 1: On The Warpath

One could almost say it was… normal. Or rather, as close to normal as life could be two decades after the collapse of civilization. The town nestled in the valley of Jackson, Wyoming proved to be the only safe haven remaining on the face of the planet. The town flourished with life as its residents could enjoy some of the simplest pleasures in a world where the word pleasure had nearly been erased from everyone's vocabulary. It provided comfort, security, and above all else, a chance for people to live a normal life.

Most importantly, life had almost returned to normal for the weary old man and the little girl he had taken in as his own. Joel and Ellie now had a permanent home, a welcoming community, and a sense of safety that neither had known for over a year. Joel could now watch over Ellie without fear that they would not see the next day, and Ellie now had a chance to experience a way of life she had never known. One could almost say it was… normal.

"We're coming up on the plant," Tommy said over the radio. He, Maria, Joel, Ellie, and around half a dozen others were riding from the town to the plant to resupply the crew that was guarding it. Joel had brought Ellie along to let her learn the ropes of guard duty. Ellie was excited to get a chance to prove herself to the pros, especially Maria. She had shared stories with the woman about her marksmanship and gun prowess, and was eager to show off her skills firsthand.

* * *

"I've set up some targets for you," Maria told Ellie as she handed her a semi-automatic rifle. "In the event of a bandit raid, it's important to take them out quick to not give them an opportunity to advance. Along this treeline there are ten targets. I will not tell you where they are, it's your job to identify them and take them out quickly. There's ten rounds in the gun, and five in the spare mag. I'll be timing you with this stopwatch. If you can find and hit all ten targets in under two minutes, you will pass the test. Think you can handle it?"

Ellie snickered at the test she had been given. "I thought this was supposed to be a challenge," she said.

"Don't get too cocky," Maria snickered back. "I intentionally made some of the targets hard to see."

"Pssh. They don't call me Eagle Eyes Ellie for nothing." She stood with her back to the treeline so she couldn't memorize where the targets were before she started, and Maria raised her stopwatch.

"On my mark..." Ellie was confident and cool as a cucumber. Hitting ten targets? That was nothing compared to some of the other stuff she's had to do. Maria gave the command, "Go!" and Ellie whipped around and shouldered the rifle immediately. Within a second, she had the first target in her sights, and she pulled the trigger. She scored a direct hit, and quickly scanned the treeline for the next target. She found one partially hidden behind a tree stump, and nailed that one as well. She racked up hit after hit after hit at a blistering pace, but seemed to freeze as she got down to the last two targets. She had eight hits, but Maria said there were ten targets. Maria was not lying when she said they were hard to see.

"Where are the last two?" Ellie asked frantically.

"I told you they were hidden. You've got forty-five seconds."

Ellie was starting to panic, even though this was just a test; an exhibition. She hated failure, especially when other people were there to see her fail. Finally, she found one of the remaining targets placed in a thick shrub. She pulled the trigger, and her hit streak improved to nine. "Gotchya."

"One more to go. Thirty seconds left."

"I totally got this," Ellie said to herself. She scanned the treeline rapidly, but the last target would not reveal itself.

"Fifteen seconds."

"Fuck," she said quietly. The pressure was on; time was running out. Her eagle eyes were letting her down at the most crucial time.

"Ten seconds."

Ellie looked away for a moment in frustration, but in doing so, something caught her eye. She glanced back, and there it was. The final target placed out in the open in a completely different area than Maria told her to look. "Oh, you little shit," Ellie said as she set her sights on the target. With nothing shielding the target, it proved to be the easiest hit out of the ten she scored. Ten shots - ten hits. "Fuck yeah!" she yelled triumphantly. "You are such a little cheat," she said to Maria.

"That was to test your vigilance and awareness. You passed with five seconds to go."

"So I didn't set any records, but I passed."

"I have to say I'm impressed. You're the youngest person to pass the test."

"Well to be fair, I'm probably the youngest person to take the test."

The girls chuckled at Ellie's comment. "Yeah, you got me there. Oh, here comes Joel."

Ellie turned around and saw Joel walking up the staircase to the walkway she was on. "Hey kiddo. I heard you passed Maria's test."

"Pssh. Obviously."

"I knew you could do it. Come on, Tommy wants to take you into the tunnels to show you how to properly guard those."

"Sounds good." As Ellie answered Joel, a familiar sound rang in her ears. The plant's emergency siren. "Oh fuck, not again," she said nervously.

"Get to your stations!" Maria shouted. "We're under attack!"

"Joel, what do we do?" Ellie asked in a panic.

"You're with me," Joel said. "I'll keep you safe." Joel and Ellie followed Maria as they met up with two of the guards currently stationed at the plant.

"What's the situation?" Maria asked the guards.

"We've got a breach on the North end of the plant. Appears to be around twenty attackers."

"Where's Tommy?"

"Already there."

"Joel, Ellie, follow me," Maria instructed. The three of them made their way to the firefight, and on the way ran into Tommy falling back.

"Ellie, we've gotta get you outta here," Tommy said.

"I can fight," Ellie insisted.

"I know you can, but I don't want you to. This isn't like the attack last fall, these guys are more heavily armed. This is too dangerous for you."

"What are you planning, Tommy?" his wife asked him.

"I'm gonna take Ellie and Joel with me and get them to safety. You head to the bridge and join the rest of the guards."

"Tommy, this is too dangerous," Maria said.

"I got this. Trust me."

A loud explosion sounded nearby, and bullets started whizzing close to the group as they dove for cover. "Your ass better get back in one piece," Maria demanded.

"I'll be fine." Another explosion went off, even closer than before. "Ellie, Joel, with me." Tommy stood up and quickly led the way to a door that opened to a staircase going up to the catwalks inside one of the plant buildings. Ellie and Joel stayed right on his heels as they walked up and above the firefight going on below. "Whatever you do, do not engage," he instructed them. "We don't got no cover up here." The catwalks led to an open doorway at the opposite side of the building, and in that room there was a side door. "This door leads to the tunnels. We just gotta hope these bandits ain't usin' them." He opened the door that led to another staircase. The group made their way down the multiple flights until they reached the plant's tunnel system that served as both a maintenance network and an emergency escape route. The problem with using those tunnels to escape the firefight was that bandits could get in through the exit, and in that corridor it would be a turkey-shoot. "I know my way through here. Just stay right on my heels." The tunnel system was a maze, with many turns and dead ends, but Tommy had memorized the layout. Unfortunately, his memory wouldn't be able to get them out, as they rounded a corner to find that the hall was flooded with electrified water. "Stop!" Tommy shouted. "We can't go this way."

"What do we do now?" Ellie asked.

"We'll have to go back up to the surface. Backtrack and climb up that ladder we just passed."

"Tommy, you better get us outta here," Joel said angrily to his brother.

"I'm tryin'!"

The group got to the ladder, and Tommy was the first one to go up. "Where does this lead?" Joel asked.

"The generator room. Hopefully this is far enough from the fighting that we can get out safely."

"I don't like this, Tommy." Joel grabbed onto the ladder and started climbing, with Ellie immediately behind him.

"I don't either." He opened the hatch at the top of the ladder and looked around. "Alright, it's clear." Tommy climbed to the surface and helped Joel and Ellie out of the ladder. When they were both up, he shut the hatch, but the lock had been broken, so anybody could climb back up. "Okay, follow me quickly." They followed Tommy up to the main walkway above the generator room floor, and through the control room to the door outside. Tommy tried to open it, but the door would not budge.

"Hurry up, Tommy!" Joel shouted.

"It's stuck!"

All of a sudden, gunshots sounded from the opposite end of the generator room. "Guys, they're in here!" Ellie yelled in a panic.

"Get the goddamn door open!"

"I can't!"

"Oh, for Christ's sake!" Joel grabbed his shotgun and stuck the barrel against the lock on the steel door. He pulled the trigger, and obliterated the lock, forcing the door open. "Move!" Joel shouted as he let Tommy go ahead.

"We're almost outta here," Tommy said. They turned the corner to find a long, open corridor that connected to the back entryway. "There's a gate at the end of this." They all sprinted down the path with safety in their sight. Their luck had held out up until that point, but in the clearing at the end of the walkway, two bandits that just come through that gate raised their weapons as Tommy stepped into the clearing. Tommy managed to drop one with his rifle, but that's where their luck would run out. The other bandit set Tommy in his sights, and fired... striking Tommy in the chest. Blood spattered out of his chest, and Joel watched in horror as his baby brother fell to the ground.

"NOOO!"

Joel turned to the man who cut down his brother, and rage consumed him as he fired his shotgun again, and again, and again until the bandit was missing and entire section of his torso.

Joel turned back to his little brother, who was bleeding profusely from the chest. He ran over to his side and rolled him onto his back. Tommy was still alive, but his breathing was failing, and he was making stomach-churning pained noises. "Tommy!" Joel pressed both of his hands onto Tommy's wound, but Tommy took a hold of Joel's left hand, and held it tightly in his own. "Tommy, it's gonna be okay. Just stay with me." Joel felt his heart drop, just like it did when he discovered that his daughter had been shot.

"Joel..." Tommy said with pain in his eyes. "Take care of my wife." Joel looked back into Tommy's eyes with pain of his own. His little brother was slipping away right before his eyes. Joel hadn't known pain like this since he saw the same thing happen to Sarah twenty years ago. "Take care of my town."

"Don't do this to me, Tommy. Come on, baby brother, stay with me." Joel pleaded desperately for Tommy to hold on, but it was too late. Tommy let out one final exhale as the life vacated his eyes, and the hand holding Joel's fell to the ground. "Tommy!" Joel called out. He hoped there was still something left of his little brother, but looking into Tommy's eyes, he saw nothing but death. "T-T-Tommy," he whimpered as he bowed his head and felt tears start to leak from his eyes. He brought his left hand to his face, and gritted his teeth to try and prevent the tears from coming out. A smothering feeling of grief overtook him, and he could feel himself asphyxiating from it. His brother was dead, and the end came quickly and brutally.

Ellie watched on in shock. In a matter of seconds she had seen a hardened, ruthless killing machine be reduced to a blubbering wreck. She never thought she would see him this vulnerable, but she also never thought he would lose the last of his true family. "Oh my God... Joel..." She stepped forward and reached a hand out to him, but didn't actually touch him. "I am so sorry."

Joel ran a hand through Tommy's hair, and bent down to give him a quick kiss on his forehead. Joel picked his head up off of Tommy's head, and used his fingers to shut his eyes forever.

As Joel sat next to the body of his little brother, a faint voice came from a ways behind them. "Tommy!" It was Maria, and she was looking for her husband. "We held them off, Tommy."

"Oh, shit. Maria's coming," Ellie said. The two were afraid of how Maria would react when she stumbled upon her now deceased husband.

"Tommy." She emerged from the long courtyard, and looked over at Tommy's body. Her stomach immediately dropped, and a look of fear and grief fell over her face. "TOMMY!" She ran towards the body, and Joel stood up to hold her back. Maria struggled against Joel, trying desperately to get to her husband's side. "Tommy! Tommy!"

"Maria, stay back-"

"Tommy, no! Tommy-y-y-y," she stopped resisting Joel as she broke down into tears. "NOOOOOO!" she bellowed out as she buried her head into Joel's chest, bawling her eyes out over her Tommy's death.

Joel wrapped his arms tightly around Maria, and he felt her tears soaking through his shirt. "Just take it easy, Maria."

"No... no..." she whimpered through her sobbing. "T-T-Tommy..."

Ellie watched the two mourning the loss with a heavy heart of her own. She had seen a man lose his brother, a woman lose her husband, and a town lose one of its leaders. She bowed her head in grief, but managed to keep any tears from coming out, much unlike Joel and Maria.

* * *

Maria was back at her house in the town that evening. Tommy had been buried as soon as they arrived back from the plant, and Maria was now left to grieve alone. She and Tommy built the town together along with her father, whom she also had to bury years before. With Tommy's death, the two men Maria loved most in her life were gone.

Joel opened the door to Maria's house, and saw her looking out the back window. Without looking at him, she started talking. "Five years... Five years Tommy and I were married... Now he's gone. I'm a widow." Joel walked over to the grieving woman and stood right behind her. "So I guess this is the cost of building a safe haven for people. They say that no good deed goes unpunished... My punishment for bringing hope to people who've all but abandoned hope is that I lose the first man I can ever say I loved... How is that fair?"

Joel knew her question was rhetorical, but he answered anyway. "Believe me, I'm all too familiar with how unfair the world is." He walked to the open sitting area in her house to give her space, and she spoke up again.

"So why are you here?" she asked as she turned around. "You wouldn't come here when I'm like this unless you had something substantial to share, so either tell me or get out."

Joel did have something substantial to share. He found something on the bandit who killed Tommy that was surprisingly undamaged by Joel's shotgun barrage. We pulled the folded piece of paper out of his pocket, and handed it to Maria. "I found this on one of the bandits."

Maria took the paper and opened it up, revealing that it was a map of Jackson County. "This is a map of the area." A closer inspection of the map revealed that it was a map kept by the bandits detailing their plans of attack. Three areas circled in black marked the different places the bandits were hiding out, with red arrows drawn to several other areas in the county. The red arrows are their routes of attack. "It's the bandits' attack map."

"What we got at the plant was just a small taste of what these guys are capable of. I found this note," he took another smaller piece of paper out of his pocket, "and it says that they're planning an all-out attack on the town." Maria's eyes widened when Joel said the bandits were planning to launch an assault on the town. "That map tells us that there are multiple cells of these bandits working together. If they all attack this town, it could be catastrophic."

Joel could clearly see fear in Maria's eyes. There were over a hundred people in the town, and dozens of children. All of them were at risk if the bandits attacked. "What should we do?" Maria asked.

"Send a group of men to these two areas," Joel pointed to the two small bandit bases, "make sure they're well-armed, and they should be able to drive them out easily. My beef," Joel then pointed to the large bandit base that launched the attack on the plant earlier, "is with these bastards. These are the bastards that attacked the plant, these are the bastards that killed my brother. I'm gonna go make sure that was the last mistake they ever make."

"I hope you're not planning on dragging Ellie into this."

"Of course not. I ain't gonna put her at risk like that. I'm leavin' you in charge of her while I'm gone."

Maria nodded, indicating she accepted the task of keeping an eye on Ellie. "So how many men are you taking with you?"

"None. It's my brother they killed. This mission is personal."

Maria remained silent for a second, bewildered that Joel thought he could take on an entire bandit operation by himself. "You expect to deal with them all by yourself?"

"I've been doin' it for years. This is not different."

"And what am I supposed to tell Ellie if you don't make it back?"

"I'll be back. And I'll only be gone a few days," Joel assured Maria.

"And have you told Ellie about this?" she asked.

"I wasn't plannin' on telling her anything about this. If I do tell her, she'll be all up on my ass to take her with me. But that's not gonna happen. You keep a close eye on her, make sure she doesn't get into trouble, maybe you could even put her to work. Got it?"

Maria hesitated, debating whether or not she liked the assignment Joel had given her. "I got it."

"I'm heading out first thing tomorrow mornin'. I want you to stay with Ellie the whole time I'm gone." Joel nodded at Maria to make sure she understood, and she nodded back to say she did. "Well, I'll leave you alone now. And don't worry... I will make those bastards pay for killing Tommy."

"You'd sure as hell better," Maria said.

Without saying anything more, Joel turned around and walked out of Maria's house, leaving her to grieve alone once again.

* * *

Joel walked into the town's general store where people traded for goods. They could either trade supplies or with work credits, gotten by working a certain number of hours either on guard duty or in the farms. "Evenin' Gary," Joel called out to the man who ran the store.

"Hey Joel. How're you feeling?"

Joel let out a heavy sigh as he approached Gary's counter. "Oh, as good as one can feel after losing their brother," he said.

Gary nodded sadly, and looked at Joel with sympathy. "Tommy was a great man with a great vision. It's hard to imagine life in this town without him. But enough of the downer talk. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I need ammo. And lots of it. 20-gauge, .308, .45, and 9-mil."

Joel's request took Gary by surprise. "What on Earth do you need with so much ammo?" he asked Joel.

"I'm going on a little 'quest' if you will. I found where the bandits who attacked the plant are based and I was gonna go and make them pay with their blood for takin' my brother away from me."

"You really think you can take on a whole bandit camp by yourself?"

"I've done it many times before," Joel said almost boastfully.

"Remind me not to piss you off," Gary chuckled as he pulled out boxes of the ammo Joel requested. Joel took as many rounds from the box as he felt he needed and then some, making absolutely sure he wouldn't run out.

"I think that'll do," Joel said. "So how much do I owe ya for this?"

"You know what? You don't owe me anything. You've lost your brother today, I couldn't take any more from you. Especially since this ammo is for a good cause. It's on the house."

Joel nodded, appreciative of Gary's generosity. "Thank you, Gary."

"No problem. Make sure you give those fuckers absolute Hell."

"Don't worry, I will."

* * *

Joel arrived back at his and Ellie's house, and immediately after closing the front door behind him, Ellie came and gave him a forceful shove. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" she asked aggressively.

"What are you talking about?"

"If you think that you're gonna just leave me here while you're off on your little revenge mission, you can forget it. Now take me with you!"

Joel was perplexed at how she found out about his quest. But he was more concerned for her safety. "Ellie, it's too dangerous to take you with me-"

"Bull-fucking-shit! We've been through way more dangerous stuff. If you're gonna be out there risking your ass, I want to help make sure you get back in one piece."

"Ellie, you're not coming with me, end of discussion. Where'd you even hear about this?"

"Who else?" an older female voice said from the other room. Joel and Ellie turned as Maria stepped around the corner and into the room they were in. "You know, trying to hide this from Ellie was a bad idea." Ellie turned back to Joel with a huge, taunting smile on her face.

"Maria, I told you to keep an eye on her-"

"I will. And you will too, because we're both coming with you." Maria stood next to Ellie with her hands on her hips, and Ellie took up the exact same pose still with the taunting smile.

Joel threw up his hands in disbelief that Maria would do this. "Maria-"

"Joel, you listen to me. Tommy was more than just your brother, he was my husband. You'd bet your ass I want a piece of those fuckers who took him away. And so does Ellie."

Ellie stuck her head forward and stuck her tongue out at Joel, taunting him even harder for thinking he'd get away with his plan to go on his revenge mission without her.

Joel did not like the idea of bringing Ellie along with him on his dangerous mission, but after thinking, he realized there was no way she _wasn't_ coming. He admitted defeat with a sigh, and told the girls, "We leave at dawn tomorrow."

"You're damn right," Maria said. "And I won't sleep peacefully until I see those bastards dead."

"Get some sleep," Joel said. "It's gonna be a rough next few days."

* * *

**That concludes chapter 1 of Walk With Me In Hell. Stay tuned for chapter 2.**

**Remember to leave a review.**


	2. CH 2: The Promise

**Author's Notes: You know, it feels really good to actually be motivated to write something again. As excited as I initially was for A World Scorned, I think the lack of Joel or Ellie just prevented me from getting invested in it. Now that I'm working with these characters I love so much again, I actually feel like I need to keep writing.**

**First thing's first, the more observant of you may have noticed that the summary of this story changed. That is because I thought of a new direction to take this story that is substantially darker. All bets are off; it will be epic, cataclysmic, and most of all, tragic.**

**Okay, onto the here and now. Joel, Ellie, and Maria have just left Jackson in search of revenge for Tommy's death. As you'll see in upcoming chapters, it's going to be much more difficult than just going to the camp, killing the bandits, and coming back. But for this chapter, I wanted to try several different things. First, I wanted to illustrate the fact that Ellie is still just a kid with something that all kids go through around her age. I also wanted to throw a little bit of "horror" in, and I put horror in quotes because that isn't the right word, but I can't think of the correct way to describe it. And of course, I have to throw in an emotional conversation at the end of the chapter. The conversation I'm referring to was actually really hard to write because of what Ellie says during it. It's something that really kills me to think may actually happen at some point, whether in this story or in a game sequel. What am I talking about? Read and find out!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Last Of Us or the characters. All credit goes to Naughty Dog.**

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Walk With Me in Hell

CH. 2: The Promise

"My feet are already tired," Ellie groaned. "Why couldn't we have taken horses? We woulda saved so much time and effort."

"I told you, it would've given us too big a profile. Plus, we don't need to be puttin' innocent horses at risk," Joel explained to the unusually whiney girl.

"Well, my feet are gonna need to have a word with you later." The trio had set out from Jackson less than an hour ago, and Ellie had been complaining incessantly for about the last twenty minutes. "I'm thirsty."

Joel bit his tongue to avoid snapping at her. He and Maria were more than fed up with her whining, and had been for some time. "So take a drink from your canteen."

"I don't wanna. I'm trying to conserve water so I have enough for the whole trip."

"Then don't complain about being thirsty," Joel said as he lost his temper a bit.

There were a few seconds of silence from behind him, but it was broken soon after. "Geez, someone's in a pissy mood," she grumbled to herself, but still loud enough that Joel could hear it.

That is what finally caused Joel to lose his control. "Alright," he said as he turned around, but Maria quickly held him back.

"Joel, just let it go," she tried to reason with him. Joel turned back to look at Ellie, and she responded by sticking her tongue out and blowing a short raspberry at him. Joel looked back at Maria, who was glaring at him, and managed to get himself back under control. "Yes, it's annoying, but just leave her be. She's just going through a whiney phase." She chuckled a little bit when she realized that phases were still a thing. "It's funny to think that kids still go through phases."

They heard Ellie call out from behind them once again. "I know you guys are talking about me up there. And I know you know I don't like being excluded from conversations about me."

"Good to know," Joel called back. He then spoke softly to Maria. "If she doesn't stop complaining soon, you are going to see an angry Joel."

"Oh, I won't let that happen," Maria said.

Still, Ellie's groaning would not stop. "I'm hot."

"Then take off your jacket," Maria told her before Joel could say anything. "It's summer now, you don't need two shirts and a jacket."

"That's a good idea," Ellie said. They heard Ellie unzip her backpack to put her jacket in there, zip it back up, and then run to catch up to them. Much to Joel and Maria's rejoice, nearly five whole minutes went by without a single complaint from Ellie. Just when they had gotten comfortable to the silence, "I just saw a squirrel and now I'm starting to get hungry."

"Hey, I've got a great idea," Joel said sarcastically. "Why don't we play a game. It's called the quiet game. It's really easy to play, all you have to do is stay quiet." He turned around and looked right at Ellie. "Starting now."

Less than ten seconds into the quiet game, Joel and Maria heard Ellie start whistling a song. Joel cleared his throat loudly, and that got Ellie to stop. Sadly, it didn't last long. "Hey, I know we're supposed to be playing the quiet game," Joel started grimacing with anger at Ellie's inability to keep quiet, "but I just want to let you know that there's a path right here that might lead to some supplies."

Joel and Maria turned around immediately and walked over to Ellie. "What path?" Joel asked.

"Right there," Ellie pointed to the direction of the dirt path leading off of the road and into the woods. It was somewhat hidden by a car, so it was understandable that Joel and Maria would miss it. "Do you wanna take our chances and see if it leads to anything good?"

There was a real risk in heading down a path they did not know where it led, and Joel and Maria had quite different approaches to risky situations. Joel was more of a risk-taker, whereas Maria preferred to play it safe most of the time. "What do you think?" Joel asked Maria. "I know there are bandits in this area, but I think we should take our chances and check to see where this trail leads."

Maria hesitated, and looked over at Ellie to get her input. Ellie just shrugged her shoulders, so it was up to Maria to make the decision on whether or not to venture down the path. "I mean..." she sighed, "normally I would say no, but... I know in this situation Tommy would have chosen to go down the path. So, let's go see where it leads."

Joel then glanced over at Ellie, and saw that she already had her pistol in her hands and was ready to head down the trail. "Okay, here we go." They started off down the trail into the woods with their weapons at the ready in case they encountered any bandits. Initial impressions were unnerving for Joel and Maria. The winding trail was surrounded by thick foliage, but the trail itself had almost nothing growing on it. That was a sign that the trail was used regularly, and given the area they were in, it was likely used by bandits. The three could not see around any of the trail's many hairpin turns because of the thick foliage, and was likely designed that way by whoever was at the end of the trail. An ambush could be waiting around any corner, but they wouldn't realize until it was too late. The canopy of trees blocked out much of the sun, only adding to the feeling of uneasiness in the trio.

As they were walking down the trail, Joel's uneasiness suddenly turned into sheer dread. It was the feeling he got whenever he knew he was being hunted down, although he had not felt it to the extent he felt now in years. They were being followed. Not just followed, someone or something had been watching them the whole time. Close enough to see exactly what the three were doing, but far enough away so that they would not be seen themselves. "Hold up," he whispered as he grabbed onto Maria to get her to stop. When they were stopped, Joel glanced at Maria, and then at Ellie, and saw the same dread on all of their faces. They knew they had made a mistake. "We ain't alone in these woods."

"We should really go back," Ellie whispered with distinct fear in her voice. "We don't know what's out here, so we should just turn around right now."

"It may be too late for that," Joel whispered back. They had been walking the trail for more than ten minutes; they were in too deep to turn around. Ellie looked at Joel, and she saw something in his face that she had never seen in all their time together... Fear. Whatever was among them was enough to spark actual fear in Joel; a telltale sign that they were potentially in serious trouble. "Let's just keep pressing on." Joel and Maria reluctantly set off down the trail once again, but when they looked back at Ellie, she was still standing in the same spot and cowering slightly. "Ellie, keep up."

Ellie looked up at Joel for a moment, and then slowly started walking forward herself. Out of all she had encountered during her and Joel's year on the road, she had never been as scared as she was in that moment. She had encountered hunters, infected, and even cannibals, but she was now discovering that the fear of the unknown was the scariest thing she could imagine. She knew there was danger among them, but she didn't know what the danger was, or just how dangerous it actually was. Then to add to the feeling of dread, the sun went behind a cloud, so what little light was shining through the trees was now blocked out.

Just when Ellie thought she couldn't get any more scared, she heard movement in the woods, very close to the trail. "Guys, do you hear that?" she whisper-shouted. Joel and Maria stopped in their tracks and listened. They immediately heard it. Something was moving around just inside the foliage, and it was big... far bigger than a human. They looked in the direction of the movement and could see some of the shorter trees bending as the unknown adversary walked through. "What the fuck is that?" she whispered.

"I don't know," Joel whispered back. Joel looked back at Ellie and saw fear consuming her. "Come here," he said as he grabbed her arm and pulled her close behind him. Ellie stayed as close to Joel as she could, and then the three of them all jumped back when they heard a tree snap and then fall over as whatever was moving knocked it down.

"Joel, we made a mistake coming down here," Maria whispered as they all staggered backwards.

"Yeah, I know," Joel said back.

Then out of nowhere, Ellie began breathing rapidly and loudly behind Joel. "Oh God," she whimpered. Joel and Maria turned around and saw her cowering and shaking. "I feel like I'm about to have a panic attack."

"Ellie focus on me," Joel said as he put his hands on Ellie's cheeks, trying to calm her down. "You're fine." As he was trying to keep her calm, the giant footsteps continued in the trees just behind them, only sparking more fear in Ellie.

"Joel, we need to turn around and haul ass out of these woods," Maria said. "Ellie's having a nervous breakdown, she never gets this scared. This is serious."

"She's fine, Maria," he said.

"No I'm not," Ellie whimpered again. "I don't know what it is, but something about this is triggering a panic attack." The movement in the woods suddenly intensified, romping around faster and more aggressively than before, as if it was preparing to attack.

Joel had a feeling that the knowledge of being hunted was triggering the panic in Ellie, but all he was focused on was getting her calm. "Ellie, listen to me. Just focus on taking slow, deep breaths, and try to calm down." Joel began breathing slowly and deeply, demonstrating what he wanted Ellie to do. "You do what I'm doing." Joel continued breathing deeply, and Ellie joined in, breathing in perfect sync with him. Slowly, her shaking subsided, and Joel could feel her becoming less tense. "That's it, keep breathing." As Ellie began to calm down, the footsteps that caused the fear in the three of them quieted down as well. After about a minute of the controlled breathing, Ellie had calmed back down. "There, see? Told you you were okay. And do you hear that? The footsteps are gone. We're good to go now."

As it would turn out, they weren't. As soon as Joel finished his sentence, a loud and ferocious growl bellowed from just off of the trail, causing all three of them to recoil sharply. "What the fuck was that?" Ellie shouted. Her question was answered immediately when the foliage bordering the trail parted, and the beast among them revealed itself as it stepped out onto the trail. This monster was even more fear and awe-inspiring than a Bloater. It was larger, faster, and unlike Bloaters, had very sharp eyesight as well as its keen senses of smell and hearing.

"It's a fuckin' grizzly bear," Joel said as his voice broke with fear. The beast closed in on the three travelers, growling softly and sniffing at them. They backpedaled slowly, being careful not to startle the bear and cause it to attack. "No... sudden... movements," Joel said. The bear continued to close in on them, smelling them to see if they had food... or were about to become its food.

"Guys, I think it's hungry," Ellie said. "And I think it's hungry for human flesh." The bear licked its chops, as if to prepare its taste buds for a healthy portion of human. "Well, it's been a good run, it's been nice knowing you, but I think we're about to be breakfast."

"Keep quiet," Maria said.

Then, the bear made its move. It reared up on its hind legs, standing almost ten feet tall looking down on its new prey. Just as the group prepared for the end, a gun went off, and a bullet entered the bear's mouth, eventually finding its way into the beast's brain. The bear collapsed forward, and they all scurried out of the way to avoid being crushed by the beast.

Joel and Maria turned around to Ellie behind them, and saw that she was holding her pistol in her hands, and had a look on her face similar to when she saved Joel from the hunter in the hotel in Pittsburgh. She had killed the bear with a perfect, near one-in-a-million shot. Ellie lowered her pistol, and a look of fear mixed with pride was written on her face. The two adults couldn't hide their admiration from her, and they gave her a short round of applause for her fearlessness. "You can call me the Giant Slayer from now on."

* * *

After another two minutes of walking after the bear encounter, the group reached the end of the trail and found a small hunting cabin. Cabin was actually a generous description, because it was actually more like a shack. Nonetheless, it would provide sufficient shelter from the major rainstorm that was about to hit. "It doesn't look like anyone's using it," Ellie said.

"No one's using it," Joel said. "I can tell when a place is unoccupied, and this is definitely unoccupied."

"So we can lower our guard?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, it's safe." The group lowered their weapons just like Joel said, and approached the cabin. Joel opened the door to look inside, and saw that it was equipped with a wood stove for cooking, two beds, a table, and nothing else. It was less than luxurious, but they only needed the shelter for a few hours while the rain passed.

"Well, it's better than getting soaked," Ellie said.

"Yeah. Hey, Ellie, why don't you and Joel see if you can get some food?" Maria asked her.

"Yeah, let's go," Ellie said excitedly.

* * *

The trio sat around the cabin with full bellies thanks to a deer Ellie and Joel bagged, listening to the sound of the rain tapping the roof. They were all laughing at a story Joel was telling about the time he and Tommy put a live snake in a neighbor's mailbox when they were kids. "Oh my God, how did they react?" Ellie asked through her laughter.

"They called in animal control to remove the snake. They never figured out how it got in there," Joel said.

"So you didn't get in trouble?"

"Nope. No one saw us do it. We did get in trouble though for scaring another neighbor's horses with firecrackers."

Ellie's demeanor suddenly changed. "Oh, that's mean. Why would you do that?"

"Cause we were idiots, especially me. I'd had more bad ideas by the time I was twelve than most people have in their lifetimes."

"What was the stupidest idea you had that you dragged Tommy into?"

"That's easy. We had a trampoline in our backyard growin' up, and we dragged it right up to the house to try a crazy stunt I came up with. We got on the roof of our two-story house, and roller skated down off the roof and onto the trampoline."

"Oh my God, you're a fucking idiot," Ellie laughed.

"I really was. I don't even think I need to tell you any more. You can probably figure out what happened next."

"What did your parents say?"

"Same thing you said, that I was a fuckin' idiot." Joel and Ellie started laughing again at his utter stupidity when he was a kid.

Although Maria had been listening to Joel's stories about Tommy, she wasn't participating in the discussion herself. After the initial shock and grief of finding out about his death, she had taken it respectably well. Though there were times, like now, where she felt heavy grief. "Maria," Joel called to her. "Anythin' you wanna say?"

Maria sighed and lowered her head. There was a lot she wanted to say about what a great man and husband Tommy was, but she couldn't say those things at the moment. "I don't really feel like I can talk about it right now," she said. "I feel like I've dealt with it well for the most part, but I'm not ready to really talk much about him yet." She paused to let out a deep, drawn-out sigh. "Just walking up and seeing his body like that was one of the worst things I've ever witnessed. I'm really surprised at how well you've handled it, Joel."

Joel had seemingly already managed to move past Tommy's death; a surprise to everyone considering it took twenty years to most past his daughter's death. "Over the years, I've learned that dwelling on things like that is one of the worst things you could do. And also... after watchin' my own daughter die, not much else can really get to me."

Maria scooted a little bit closer to Joel. "I haven't really told you, but I want to say that I really am horribly sorry that you had to go through that. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to lose your own child."

Until just recently, anyone bringing up Joel's deceased daughter would have set him off; it was strictly forbidden territory for anyone to go into. But now, he's able to talk about it without grief. "The hardest part wasn't seeing my little girl die... it was seeing her suffer before she did. Watchin' anyone die in pain is hard, but when it's your own child... there is nothing on this planet worst than that." Joel looked at Ellie and saw that this talk was getting her down. "But... that's in the past, I've moved on, the time for grieving the loss is over."

Joel saw Ellie nod out of the corner of his eye, and then she looked at him with a sad expression on her face. "Hey Joel," she called to him. Joel turned to listen to her. "I just want to say now that if you ever see me suffering like Sarah did... just put me out of my misery. I know that it's easier to watch someone you love die quickly and with little pain than to watch them suffer before the end comes. So if I'm in extreme pain and know that I'm gonna die, and I tell you to, just get it over with quickly. I won't have to suffer, and you won't have to watch me suffer like you did with her. Could you do that?" she asked.

Joel looked at her with the same sadness she had, but with love in addition to it. "Could I do what?" He heard what she said, but needed to clarify.

"If you saw that I was suffering, could you kill me and end it?"

Joel continued to give Ellie the same sad look, and thought deeply about what Ellie had just asked of him. "You saying that if you're suffering, you'd want me to kill you to put and end to it?"

Ellie looked Joel in the eyes and nodded. "Yeah."

Joel's initial answer to Ellie's request was 'no.' There was no way he would be able to put her down even if she was in the most extreme pain capable of being inflicted on a human; he simply loved her too much. But when he thought about it, he realized that if he really did love her, he couldn't let her suffer. The best thing to do if she was suffering would be to honor her request, and kill her quickly if she was in insufferable pain. "For your sake... yes. If it really came down to it, I'd put you out of your misery."

Ellie nodded again, and smiled at Joel. "I know it would be hard for you to do, but I wouldn't want you to see me in that much pain. It would be better for all of us."

Ellie nodded at Joel again, and then he nodded back. "I agree."

Ellie then looked at Maria. "The same goes for you. Could you do it?"

Maria didn't take as much time to think about it as Joel did. "Yeah, I could do it. I wouldn't want to see you suffer either."

Ellie looked at both of them with a smile, and then said something radically different to lighten the mood. "So am I a fucking badass for killing that bear or what?"

Joel and Maria chuckled at that comment. "You are most certainly a badass," Joel said. "Shouldn't really be a surprise though."

"Oh, stop," Ellie said as she visibly blushed.

As the laughing quieted down, they all listened closely, and did not hear any more raindrops on the roof. "Well, I think it's stopped raining," Joel said. "You girls ready to head out again?"

"Yeah," they both said in unison.

"Not ready to walk through all that mud," Ellie said.

"I don't think it'll be too bad. The trail was pretty well covered with trees." The three of them gathered their gear, and stood up as they were ready to hit the road again.

"Alright, now. On the road again," Joel said.

* * *

**That concludes chapter 2 of Walk With Me In Hell. Stay tuned for chapter 3.**

**Don't forget to leave a review if you liked it.**


	3. CH 3: Go For A Dip

**Author's Notes: I thought you'd like the bit about Ellie's complaining phase. The theme of Ellie still being a kid despite everything will continue in this chapter, but I will also remind you that she may not be able to "just be a kid" for much longer.**

**Also, don't think that that conversation at the end of the last chapter is just going to be forgotten about. I'm not saying it will get to the point of Joel having to put down Ellie, but I won't be just leaving it alone. I know it sucks to think that it might reach that point, but a lot of things suck in the world they live in.**

**As far as this chapter goes, obviously the thought of possibly having to kill Ellie if she was suffering would weigh pretty heavily on Joel's mind. That will come into play over the next few chapters in several different circumstances.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Last Of Us or the characters. All credit goes to Naughty Dog.**

**P.S. I just want to talk about a pet peeve of mine. It annoys me when people follow or favorite this story, but don't leave a review. If you do that, you obviously liked it, so tell me why you liked it. Even if you only leave one sentence, at least tell me why you thought it was good enough to follow or favorite.**

* * *

Walk With Me in Hell

CH. 3: Go For a Dip

"Well… shit," Ellie said when the group reached the first major obstacle in their journey. A section of the large arch bridge heading East from Jackson had collapsed, leaving an eight foot gap with no way to cross. When Joel and Ellie saw the bridge last fall when the first arrived at the power plant, there were no signs that it had been weakened to that extent. "What do we do now?" she asked.

"We have to find something," Joel said. "There's a plank on the other side that's long enough to span the gap. Don't do us any good over here though."

"The plant's right down there," Ellie said. "I mean… if we can't find any other way we could always just take a detour through there."

"No," Maria quickly butted in. "We will absolutely not be going through the plant."

"Why not?" Ellie asked. "It'll only be like ten minutes out of our way."

Ellie and Joel both looked at Maria as they waited for a reason why she refused to go through the plant. With a sigh, she explained it to them. "I can't go back there this soon after losing Tommy," she said. "I really can't even look at that place."

Ellie scoffed at Maria's refusal to go through the plant when it would only take them ten minutes out of their way. "Look, if we can't find another way across, we may not have a choice."

Maria's voice raised suddenly, taking Ellie by surprise. "I would turn around and abandon this mission before I go back to where I saw my husband lie dead."

"Ellie," Joel said, "let it go. If she doesn't feel comfortable goin' back through the plant, we won't force her."

Ellie opened her mouth and started to retort, but quickly changed her mind. "You're right," she sighed. "I'm sorry. But how are we gonna get across? Are we gonna like... head down off the road and try and find something to cross the river with?"

"That's what it looks like," Joel said.

"We're gonna have to do that, but I want to try and not get too far off our path," Maria said. "Come on, let's head into the woods."

"Hopefully we won't run into any more bears," Ellie teased as they ventured off the road. "But if we do, I've got us covered," she said boastfully.

"Don't get too cocky," Maria said. "It was a lucky shot."

"Pssh! Luck? There was no luck involved. I'm just awesome like that."

"You ain't gonna win this one, Maria," Joel said to her. "Let her have her moment."

The group continued through the woods working their way down to the river's edge to search for some way to get across. They were hoping for a boat of some sort; preferably something lightweight like a canoe or dinghy. Whatever they found would just need to get them from one side to the other and not sink. Joel and Maria didn't feel like getting wet, and Ellie could not swim, so they would need to find something with few to no leaks.

They reached the edge of the river, and when they got up close it became clear that crossing it would not be an easy feat. "Uh... that river looks really rough," Ellie said.

"Yeah, the rapids get really aggressive at points," Maria responded. "The current is really strong too, except for one small area where it's unusually calm. That's where we'll cross."

"So, what are we actually gonna use to get across?" Ellie asked.

"Anything we can find," Joel answered.

"So I'm guessing using a pallet to get me across would be a stretch?" Ellie asked him.

"With the current of this river, definitely a stretch. Plus, I ain't exactly in the mood to get wet, so I'd like to actually use a boat or something."

"Do you think we'll actually find a boat that isn't full of holes?"

"The only way to find out is to start looking," Maria said.

The three of them began walking along the bank, following the river downstream and away from the plant. Maria had told them that the river is very rough, save for one small area, which would be where they crossed. The current moved fast, and the river had rocks and rapids all through it, and the farther downstream they went, the rougher the water got. After a few minutes of walking, they reached their next obstacle, and this would be messy.

"What's with all this mud?" Ellie asked. They had arrived at the spot where a smaller creek empties into the river, except the creek at that moment was just mud, ten feet across.

"This is where this creek right here meets the river. The rain from earlier today turned it and the area around it to mud," Maria explained. "Just be careful crossing it," she said as she stepped into the disgusting mud pit.

"Woah, hold up," Ellie said. "I am not setting foot in that shit."

Joel and Maria had gotten used to Ellie not complaining, but alas, it had started again. "Then go on back to town," Joel told her. "We'll be back in a couple days."

"Can't we go around? You know... and not have to walk through a bunch of mud?"

"No, now come on." Joel then started across the quagmire, and Ellie realized that she was at a major disadvantage.

"Oh, that's not fair. You guys actually have shoes you can walk across mud with. I'm wearing these... stupid flat shoes. They'll get stuck."

"Just be careful, and you won't get stuck."

Ellie grunted in frustration, and decided to suck it up and cross the mud. She lifted up her foot and set it gently in the mud, and felt the goo squish under her foot, and heard the gross sound it made, and immediately winced. She did the same with the other foot, and got the same gross sensation. Then the smell hit her; the boggy smell that was comparable to the smell of dog farts, and gagged a bit. Maria was completely across, Joel about halfway, but Ellie was still just past the beginning. She took another step forward, and again felt and heard the squishing under her foot. She tried to take a fourth step, but her foot would not lift. She pulled harder, but her foot again would not budge. She tried to break free once again, but was a third time unable to escape.

"My fucking foot is stuck!" she shouted. "I knew this would happen."

"Just wiggle your foot side to side and it will work itself out," Maria told her.

Ellie did as Maria instructed, swiveling her foot left and right while slowly pulling it up. Slowly, she could feel her foot getting looser, and looser, until she felt like she could lift her foot out of the mud. "Okay, I think I got it." She pulled her foot up, but again it would not come unstuck. "Come on." She pulled again, harder than before, and her foot finally came free... of her shoe. She immediately fell forward, and Joel and Maria were too far ahead to catch her. She managed to get out a quick "Oh shit," just before hitting the mud face first.

Joel and Maria cringed, but then started laughing under their breath. They felt bad for Ellie, but the situation was too funny to them to feel true sympathy. Ellie lifted her face out of the mud blowing raspberries to get the mud out of her mouth. She slowly stood up, looked down, and saw that the front of her clothing and face was completely covered in mud. She looked up at Joel and Maria, saw that they were still chuckling, and sighed with exasperation. "Really guys? You coulda helped me or something."

"Yeah, we know," Joel said, poking a bit of fun at her.

"I'm covered in shit!" she shouted at him. "I'm sure that's so amusing to you."

"Alright, sorry."

Ellie turned around and bent down to pull her empty shoe out of the mud, and felt it seeping through her sock. After a couple forceful tugs, she finally got her shoe out of the mud. "Fuck you, shoe," she said to it. She didn't bother putting it back on, and caught up to Joel who then helped her cross the rest of the way. "It's a good thing I brought a spare pair of socks." She looked towards the shore of the river, and got an idea. "I should step into the water and wash myself off." She stared walking towards the fast flowing river, and called back to Joel and Maria. "That's going to involve me taking my shirt off, so turn around and don't look until I tell you." Joel immediately complied, but Maria did not.

"Watch yourself, Ellie. The current is really strong and could knock you over if you aren't careful," Maria told her.

"Got it." Ellie stepped into the water, and immediately gasped and pulled her foot back out. "Oh, that's freezing."

"You need to wash yourself off," Maria said. "If you have any open wounds, even as tiny as a paper cut, you could get an infection."

Ellie hesitated a bit longer, but decided eventually to tough out the cold. "Okay." She walked out into the river, appearing to lose her footing for a second, until she was about waist deep. She grabbed the bottom edge of her shirt, and turned back around to make sure Joel and Maria weren't looking. "Turn around," Ellie told Maria when she saw that she was still looking at her.

"Ellie, we're both girls here."

"That doesn't mean I want you looking at me with no shirt on."

Maria sighed, but understood that Ellie's body was still changing, and she was uncomfortable with anyone looking at her. "Fine," Maria said as she turned around. After a few seconds of silence, Maria started to make conversation with Joel. "Well, I guess kids will be embarrassed about their bodies regardless of the outbreak."

"This is a rough age for 'em. Especially girls." That ultimately brought his mind back to Sarah. She was just starting to reach the beginning stages of maturing right before the outbreak, and Joel was admittedly lost on how to help her, since he never experienced it growing up. Grief was once again starting to wash over him as he lamented over the fact that he never got to see his own little girl become a woman, but he quickly snapped out of it.

"It really is heartwarming to see that Ellie can still be a kid even in this shitstorm of a world."

In the middle of their conversation, they heard Ellie groan, "Oh gross," most likely in response to the mud that was on her clothes.

"It is heartwarmin', but she can't always be a kid if she wants to stay alive."

"Oh, Joel, you're worrying too much. Ellie can handle herself just fine."

Joel did not respond to Maria, or even acknowledge that she said anything. He seemed to be staring at something far off in the distance, but there was nothing except forest.

Maria turned to Joel when he ignored her, and she tried to get his attention. "Joel?" Again, Joel didn't acknowledge her.

"Joel!" Ellie called out from behind them, startling them both and snapping Joel out of his trance. The two of them turned to Ellie and saw that she was wet, but thankfully most of the mud had been cleaned off. "What are you supposed to be staring at?" she asked him.

Maria turned to Joel with an inquisitive look, and asked him, "Yeah, Joel. What are you supposed to be staring at?" Maria knew he wasn't actually staring at anything, but rather that his mind had wandered to something.

Joel didn't want to tell them that his mind had wandered to the conversation they had in the cabin where Ellie asked Joel to put her down if she was suffering. "Sorry, my mind just wandered for a sec. You good?" he asked Ellie.

Ellie looked herself over, making sure she had actually gotten all of the mud. "I'm a little chilly, but I'm good. Let's keep going."

The three of them set out through the woods once again in search for a way to cross the river. Before long, they reached something that Ellie had never seen before. They arrived in a section of the forest where all of the trees had been cut down to the stumps, with a strange wooden building on the edge of the river. "Woah. What the hell is this all about?"

"Oh, this is the area where we harvested all the wood to build the walls around Jackson and repair the buildings," Maria explained. "You see that old structure over there?" She pointed to the building along the river.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"It's an old saw mill. It's almost two hundred years old, completely water powered. It became a landmark some decades ago, so crews kept working to preserve it and keep it operational, even though it wasn't in use. I bet it would still work right now, and since it's water powered, we don't need electricity from the plant."

"Nifty," Ellie said. "Hey, over there," she pointed to a bush near the water's edge. "Is that a canoe?"

Joel and Maria looked over in that direction, and saw what appeared to be a small boat hiding behind a bush. "Sure looks like it," Joel said optimistically. The group hustled towards the bush, and saw that it was in fact a canoe that had been turned upside down. "This is a canoe." Joel scanned over the hull of the canoe to make sure there were no major holes. "Seems to be in decent shape. Won't know for sure until we get it in the water."

"Speaking of water, where is this calm spot you told us about?" Ellie asked Maria.

"It's really close," Maria answered. She and Joel flipped the canoe over, and found two paddles underneath where it had been laying. "Joel, you grab the stern, I got the bow. We're gonna carry this to the shore where we'll cross."

"Can I help?" Ellie asked.

"You can carry the paddles," Maria told her. Ellie did as she was asked and picked up the paddles, holding one in each hand. "Okay Joel, lift on three. One, two, three." Joel and Maria picked up the canoe, and Maria led the way to the spot where they would set out across the river from. Ellie stayed right beside them with the paddles in her hands. They walked through the field of tree stumps and into the treeline at the far end. From there it was only a short walk to the shoreline Maria told them about. They emerged from the trees onto the shore, and Ellie immediately noticed that something didn't add up.

"Uh... this doesn't look very calm." While it was calmer than the rest of the river, there were still many rapids and a noticeable current.

Maria and Joel set the canoe down, and stepped closer to the water. "No, it really doesn't," Maria said to herself.

"Are you sure this is the spot?" Ellie asked.

"Positive. It's never been this rough before."

Ellie looked out at the churning river. There was quite a distance to the other side, and the way across would be rough. "Those rapids look pretty intense. If this boat flips out there, I'm a goner. Are you sure it's safe to cross"

Maria thought about it, but Joel and Ellie both felt she did not think for long enough. "Yeah, it should be."

Joel read Ellie's body language and saw that she was very nervous about crossing the river. He was also nervous himself, because Ellie had by definition died several months back after falling into water, but was brought back just before it was too late. Joel was afraid that if she fell in again, she might not be so lucky. "Maria, we don't have to do this. We could backtrack and cross the plant where we know it's safe."

"We'll be fine. Trust me," she said confidently. Joel and Ellie were not so persuaded my Maria's insistence that the river was safe, but they knew that Maria would not give in and go through the plant. She may have been right though; the river may very well be safe for them to cross, but there was only one way to find out. "Ellie, get in the middle, I'll sit up front." Ellie apprehensively sat in the middle of the canoe, and Maria picked up a paddle and sat in front of her. Joel picked up a paddle, and listened to Maria's instructions for him. "Joel, you're going to push us into the water. As soon as we're out of the sand, you jump in the back."

"Maria, I got a bad feelin' about this," Joel said. "This river's far too rough for Ellie to handle if the canoe sinks or capsizes."

"Joel, it'll be fine. Just give us a push."

"Okay." Joel gave the canoe a push to get it in the water, and then hopped in the back when it was free of the sand. When he got in the canoe, it rocked back and forth, which Ellie found very disconcerting.

"Shit, shit, shit," she whispered as she grabbed onto the sides of the canoe, trying not to fall into the water despite it being only a foot deep at that spot.

"It's fine, Ellie," Joel said to reassure her, even though he did not think it really was fine. Joel and Maria started paddling off the right side of the canoe, pushing it to the left to counter the flow of the river. "Alright, no turnin' back now."

The boat was moving through the water at a decent clip, but the rapids they encountered were definitely noticeable. Every time they hit one of the rapids, the canoe would lift up and lean to one side, as if taunting the group to make them think they were going in. Ellie was gripping the sides of the canoe so tightly that her fingers were turning white. They were about halfway across the river, and if she fell in, she would be well in over her head. The boat hit some more rapids, threatening to send the group for a plunge. As they were paddling across, a bug started flying around Joel's head, and he instinctively swatted at it, causing the boat to rock slightly.

"Joel, be careful back there," Maria called out.

"Sorry, there's a bug," Joel said. The bug then flew into Joel's ear, and he jerked his head to the side to try and get it out. That proved to be a big mistake. "Oh shit!" he yelled as the canoe leaned precariously to the right.

"No, no, no, no!" Ellie stammered frantically as she prepared to fall into the raging river.

"Joel!" Maria called again, but the damage had been done.

"We're goin' in!" Immediately after he said that, the canoe reached the tipping point, and dumped the three travelers into the icy river. The invigorating cold rushed over them, and the only thing Joel saw once he fell into the drink was Ellie flailing around wildly, struggling desperately to stay afloat. Joel emerged from underwater, and saw Ellie bobbing in the water and being carried away by the current.

"Help me! Help me!" Ellie cried out as the river started to sweep her away from the only two people who could save her. She feared that her time had come to an end. Death would come by way of drowning in ice cold water. She simply could not keep herself afloat, and she was too far away for Joel or Maria to rescue her.

But she wouldn't need to stay afloat. "Ellie, put your feet down!" Joel called out to her.

Ellie reacted fast, and extended her feet downward until they touched the bottom of the river. She continued to flail for several seconds after she had gotten herself stable, just to make double sure. "Oh," she said when she realized that she was never actually in danger of drowning. She was in up to her upper chest, but that still left room to spare for her. Joel and Maria walked closer to her as they watched the capsized canoe float down the river without them. Their way of crossing the river quickly was gone, but they knew they could still make it across safely. "Okay," Ellie said with a high-pitched, breathy voice. "This water is really really cold."

"Yeah," Joel said. "Let's get to the shore." They started trudging their way through the chest-deep water to reach dry land. "Did anyone lose any gear?"

"I lost my canteen," Ellie said.

"I've still got everything," Maria then said.

"Okay, so we only lost one canteen. We can probably find a new one," Joel said.

"Man, if I touched my chest right now, I'd cut myself," Ellie joked.

"Ellie, was that necessary?" Maria asked.

"It lightens the mood," Ellie responded.

The group reached the shore, and thankfully the sun had come back out after the earlier storm so they could dry off. "Alright, let's take some time to dry off and warm back up, then we'll see about gettin' back to the highway."

"I'm gonna wring my shirt out again," Ellie said. "Don't look. That goes for both of you."

While Ellie was wringing her shirt out, Joel turned his attention to Maria. "So, you really think that was better than goin' through the plant? Ellie could have drowned back there."

"Hey," Maria snapped at Joel, "you were the one who caused us to go into the water. If Ellie had drowned it would have been your own fault."

"We wouldn't have had to worry about Ellie drowning if you had just agreed to use the dam to get across. We're not even half a day into this journey and you almost got Ellie killed."

"You flipped the boat, Joel!" Maria got up in Joel's face. "If you had had more self control, we would have made it across with no issue. And out of everything, you flipped the boat over a fucking bug. Guess what? There's bugs all over the place. You almost got Ellie killed because a bug flew into your ear."

Joel raised his voice again. "This was your idea! We could have spared all this trouble and crossed at the dam and not had to worry about this!"

"You knew that wasn't going to happen. You're just trying to cover your ass because you know damn well that you're the reason Ellie almost drowned."

"You listen to me-" A gunshot from behind them got their attention and caused the argument to cease. The turned around and saw Ellie with her pistol pointed up in the air, thankfully with her shirt back on.

"Both of you need to get a grip. Instead of playing the blame game over who almost got me killed, why don't you guys just be grateful that we're all alive? This could have been a lot worse than it was, so why don't we all just be glad that everything ended up okay?"

Leave it to the kid to be the voice of reason. Joel and Maria sighed in unison, and the hostility cooled down. "Ellie's right. Arguin' like that is pointless. It all worked out, so we should just be grateful for that fact."

"Yeah. I'm sorry Joel."

"I'm sorry too."

"Good. Now that you've got that sorted out, why don't we focus on moving forward?"

Joel and Maria both nodded at Ellie, and then at each other. "I think that's the best thing to do," Maria said. "There's a road through these trees that will take us back to the highway we were on before the detour. There are a lot of bandits on this side of the river though, so we need to be very careful."

"Joel and I have been on the wrong end of ambushes before," Ellie said. "We know how to handle ourselves."

"Good. We ready?" Maria asked Joel and Ellie. When they both nodded in unison, Maria gestured to follow her. "Let's go."

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**That concludes chapter 3 of Walk With Me In Hell. Stay tuned for chapter 4.**

**Don't for get to follow/favorite/leave a review.**


	4. CH 4: The Dilemma

**Author's Notes: Yeah, I know that was a really long delay for this chapter. But there is a reason for the delay, and that is because of the lack of reviews this story is getting. All I ask is that if you enjoyed each chapter, just leave a few sentences saying why you liked it. If I'm only getting 1 or 2 reviews per chapter from the same people every time, that doesn't make me want to continue. If a chapter gets 70 views(which has been the average after 1 month), I would expect to be getting 4-7 reviews on that chapter. I was really considering cancelling this story too, but there's one friend of mine who's been really excited for this and wants me to continue. ****I usually don't even start writing the next chapter until the newest one gets at least 3 reviews, and I don't consider something like "I love this story" or "This is really good" as a review. I expect a few sentences, and I expect you to mention specific things in the chapter for it to be a meaningful review. I don't want to disappoint my friend, because he really likes what I write, but as it stands right now, I'm not getting enough response to warrant continuing. It's like when a TV show doesn't get enough response, it gets cancelled. The same could happen here. I'm putting a lot of effort into this story, but when the only feedback I'm getting is either nothing or a quick "This is great," that doesn't tell me if the effort is doing any good. All I've ever asked on this site is for you to leave a few quick thoughts on each chapter. I'm not asking for a long, in-depth review, just a few sentences.**

**Now that that rant is over, it's time to talk about this chapter. Maybe a big shock is what it'll take to get your attention. There will be a very fun, lighthearted moment, but soon after that will be a very jarring moment. And yes, it will be related to the conversation in chapter 2 where Ellie asked Joel to put her down if she asked him to. Just be prepared, it's pretty rough. Enjoy!**

**P.S. If any of you are music fans, you should follow along with my new music blog called The Foundry. There's new posts going up almost every day, and I talk about all kinds of rock and heavy metal music: thefoundrymusic . blogspot . com**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Last Of Us or the characters. All credit goes to Naughty Dog.**

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Walk With Me in Hell

CH. 4: The Dilemma

It was only a short trek through the woods before the group stumbled upon a group of structures. Ellie had heard this type of place described by Joel as a 'campground,' where people would go and live in the woods for a few days. Joel had always said most people hated it, but to Ellie, it was just called life. Upon finding the campground, the group made a startling discovery.

"You hear that?" Joel asked quietly as the trio all crouched down.

"Clickers," Ellie whispered. "Sounds like a lot too." They couldn't see into the campground since they were behind a building, but judging from the noise, there must have been at least a dozen clickers out there.

"I'm gonna take a look," Joel said. He moved to the edge of the wall and peered around the corner. In the campground area, Joel could see more clickers than he cared to count. At least twenty, almost certainly more. "Shit," he whispered. He turned back to the girls.

"How many are there?" Maria asked quietly.

"Dozens for sure," Joel answered. To get through the campground and back to the road, they would need extreme stealth and cunning, and a large amount of luck. "You stay right by my side, and move very, very slowly and quietly."

The three stepped out from behind the cabin, and Ellie was startled by the sheer number of clickers that were out there with them. "This is a bad idea, Joel," she whispered."

"Quiet," Maria whispered back. They moved as slowly as they could, trying to anticipate the paths of the nearly two dozen clickers that stood in between them and the road. Their erratic movements were unpredictable, and the noises they were making was sending chills down Ellie's spine. The group took note of all the debris laying on the ground, being careful not to kick any and alert the clickers. But that also gave them an idea. Because there was so much debris, they could use it to clear a path by distracting the clickers and drawing them away. Ellie was the first to attempt it, and she picked up an empty beer bottle that she found on the ground.

"Joel," she whispered as she tapped him on his shoulder. Joel turned around and saw the bottle in her hand, and her idea became very clear.

A clicker began moving in their direction, and Ellie waited for the perfect moment. It continued to lurch its way towards them, and then Ellie let the bottle fly. It flew over the clicker's head, and landed behind it. The monster hissed loudly and spun around sharply at the sudden noise, and several other nearby clickers did the same.

"Good thinkin'," Joel whispered to Ellie. They continued to move forward, still as slowly as they could, when two more clickers started moving towards them from two directions. Luckily for them, there was another bottle right at their feet. Joel picked it up, and threw it away from the clickers, landing with a loud crash that drew them away.

Once again, the three of them slowly inched their way towards the path that would lead back to the road. They were being as quiet as possible to avoid alerting the mess of clickers... until Ellie accidentally stepped on a broken piece of a bottle, causing it to break audibly.

The group froze the second they heard the sound, and Ellie was immediately filled with dread and regret. A nearby clicker turned towards them, and quickly moved in their direction, but it did not appear to have been alerted to their presence. The monster stopped about ten feet from them, using its sonar-like clicks to try and find whatever made the noise it heard. They were far too close for comfort, and they were only one false move from the more than two dozen clickers in the area all converging on them. They remained as still as statues, hoping the clicker wouldn't be able to detect them. Ellie reached her hand to her backpack and took out an unopened can of stew. It had enough weight to make a noticeable sound if she threw it, but she had to think fast. The clicker started towards them again, and Ellie reacted instantly by throwing the can, hoping that it would turn away from them. The clicker got within striking distance, but when the can of stew hit the ground behind it, it shifted its focus to the sudden noise, and turned away from the group.

Ellie's good thinking had gotten them out of another sticky situation, and the rest of the way through the campground was clear. The three set out on the move again, faster than before, to get back to the road. They reached the dirt trail connecting the campground to the main road, and at that point they were home free. Now that they were out of the clicker's earshot, they could stand up and walk normally. They had worked their way through a seemingly insurmountable number of clickers, but they had made it through, and at last they emerged from the trees.

The trio made it out of the woods and were back on the road. They were still tense from what was almost a very harrowing encounter, but they made it with no problems. "Whew, we make a really good team," Ellie said.

Maria nodded to her at the comment. "Yeah, we sure do."

"You know what I think we could use?" Ellie asked. "Some much needed humor." She reached into her backpack, and Joel immediately knew what her intentions were.

"Oh, good Lord," Joel sighed as he pressed his hand up to his face.

"What is it?" Maria asked.

"Just bear with me," Ellie said. She cleared her throat loudly, and began reading from her treasured joke book. "Police found a dead duck in an alley. Fowl play is suspected."

Joel groaned, but Maria chuckled at the joke.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"To get to the other side," Joel answered.

"Nope. To get to the idiot's house." Joel groaned again, but Ellie immediately responded with another joke. "Knock-knock."

"Who's there?" Joel asked.

"The chicken," Ellie said slyly.

"The chick-" Joel started to continue with the joke, but he caught himself when he finally got it.

Ellie burst into maniacal laughter, and Maria started laughing herself. "See, the chicken came to your house, so you're the-" Ellie started

"I get it," Joel cut Ellie off.

"Okay, that was good. What do you call a cow with no legs?"

"What?" Maria asked.

"Ground beef."

That joke was clever enough to get both Joel and Maria chuckling. "Okay, that was pretty good," Joel said.

"The cemetery is a very popular part of town. Everyone is just dying to get in."

"Ahh," Maria said.

Ellie chuckled before reading the next joke. "Hey Joel, I think you'll like this one."

"Oh, Jesus," Joel sighed.

"What's red and bad for your teeth?"

"I don't know."

"A brick."

Again, all Joel could do was groan. But it was fitting, since bricks were one of his most used tools.

"I had a phobia of hurdles, but I'm slowly getting over it."

Joel remained silent, while Maria let out a quick "Hmm."

"The Army captain dresses up like a Christmas tree every year. He's a very decorated officer."

"Ah, I get it," Joel said.

"Uh... I don't," Ellie responded. "Did you hear about the constipated mathematician? He had to work it out with a pencil."

"Ohh," Maria groaned. "That is so gross."

"Yeah, but awesome," Ellie said through her maniacal laughter. "Okay, that's all I got." She put the joke book back in her bag, much to Joel's relief.

Now that Ellie had lightened the mood, the trio needed to return to the matter at hand. "This road will lead back to the highway in a few miles," Maria said as they began the trek once again. "Once we get back on the path, it should be about two or three days before we reach the camp shown on the map."

"Do we have to worry about bandit ambushes?" Ellie asked.

"In this area, always," Maria answered. "They get sneaky too. I've seen them use a little girl as human bait."

"How does that work?"

"This was about four years ago. They had a little girl run out from behind a car when me and my group came through. She gave us some sob story about how her parents were dead and she had been on her own for two days. I actually fell for it, and these bandits sprang the trap and took out some of our group. We managed to take them all out too."

"Jeez. What happened to the girl?"

"We brought her back to Jackson. She was almost skeletal because of how thin she was, so we gave her lots of food, got her healthy, and one of the families took her in."

"Oh, that's good. So she got a happy ending at least."

Maria hesitated, and told Ellie about the ending she really got. "Unfortunately not. She died last winter from pneumonia, her adopting parents were devastated. She was fourteen, your age."

"Oh man, that's sad. I would've liked to meet her."

"She was a lot like you. She was as tough as anyone, I thought she'd be able to fight it off. But she didn't, and she suffered too. I feel guilty that I couldn't do more to save her."

There was that word again, suffering. Ever since the conversation in the cabin, Joel couldn't stop thinking about what he would do if he saw Ellie suffering. She made it very clear that she would want him to put her down in that event, but he didn't think he had it in him to do something like that to her. He still had a very distinct memory of the unbearable pain he felt watching Sarah suffer in the final moments of her life, and knew that he would not be able to bear seeing the same happening to Ellie. Mercy-killing was a common practice for animals who were suffering, but would he be able to do it for a human? It was just a matter of which would cause more pain for Joel: watching Ellie suffer as she died slowly, or killing her quickly so she didn't suffer. His wandering mind had distracted him, and not paying attention to where he was going, he hit the metal bumper of a car with his shin.

"Ow!" he yelled as he grabbed onto his lower leg.

"That's why you watch where you're going," Maria told him. "Do you need to be looked at?"

Joel rolled up his pant leg inspecting where he struck his shin. The skin was not broken, so Maria did not need to tend to him. "I'm good."

"Is something wrong, Joel?" Ellie asked him.

There was indeed something wrong. The weight of Ellie's request was interfering with Joel's focus and reasoning, but he knew that if he brought it up, the girls would just brush it off. "It's nothing. I'm just tired."

"Well snap out of it," Maria said. They resumed their quest, making their way to the highway after a long detour. Maria was leading the way with Ellie behind her, and Joel in the very back. Along the left side of the road was a drainage ditch that was still flowing like a small river from the earlier rain. Up ahead in the road was a bus overturned just off the shoulder, and Joel immediately got a bad feeling.

"Hold up," he said from the back of the line.

Maria and Ellie stopped, and turned to him. "What for?" Maria asked him.

Joel had a sharp hunter-prey instinct, and he was suspicious that they were about to become the latter. "Behind that bus, I got a feeling that we might be walkin' into an ambush."

Maria looked at the bus, and although she did not get the same feeling, she heeded Joel's warning. "Okay, let's play this smartly and safely." Maria took the hunting rifle off of her shoulder, and Ellie and Joel both drew their pistols. They advanced carefully, maintaining vigilance so as to avoid being caught off guard by the possible ambush. They saw that there were two cars that would provide a limited amount of cover if they would need it. As they got closer to the bus, Joel's suspicions were confirmed.

Four men stepped out from behind the bus with rifles raised. "Get your hands up!" one of them shouted.

The trio complied, seeing that they were outnumbered, and ran through possible courses of action to take in their scenario. They were able to remain calm for the most part, since all three of them had been on the receiving ends of ambushes in the past, they knew how to handle these situations. "Don't be stupid now. We aren't looking to kill you, but if you don't do everything we say, we will kill you," another bandit said.

Maria reached one hand out and pulled Ellie behind her, putting herself in the line of fire if bullets started to fly. Joel looked and noticed that the girls were within lunging distance of the car, and could get behind cover quickly. "On my mark, you and Ellie dive behind this car," Joel told Maria.

"Hey, shut your mouth fuckhead!" one bandit shouted.

Maria didn't know exactly what his mark would be, but she nodded anyway. Joel brought the revolver down, quickly lined up a bandit in his sights, and put a bullet in his head, all in less than a second.

"Shit!" a bandit called out. "Kill the fuckers!"

Maria immediately dove behind the car with Ellie underneath her, and Joel followed right behind as he narrowly got out of the way of a bullet fired by one of the attackers. Two more bullets hit the car when they were all behind, and the bandits ran back behind the bus. "You pick them off from right here," Joel instructed Maria. "I'll try to get an angle on them." Maria nodded, and then raised her rifle as a bandit stuck his head out from behind the bus. She pulled the trigger, and placed a bullet perfectly between his eyes.

Joel ran behind the second car looking to flank the bandits. Another shot rang out from the opposite end of the bus, and it was clear that both of the remaining bandits were unsuspecting of Joel's advance. He ran to the bus, and peeked around the corner as he heard another shot ring out. He readied his revolver, and fired two shots scoring two quick kills. They had dispatched of the four bandits in mere seconds; it was almost too easy... Until Joel learned that they had suffered a casualty.

"Joel!" Maria screamed. It was a bone-chilling scream that sent shivers down his spine and caused the hairs on his arms to stand on end. "Ellie's hit!"

His stomach dropped, and he felt a massive weight fall on top of him. He ran over to the car Maria and Ellie were using as cover as fast as he could, and was greeted by a ghastly sight. Ellie lay on her back, crying and whimpering in pain with Maria pressing her hands to a profusely bleeding wound in Ellie's abdomen. "She was hit by a ricochet!" Maria cried.

Joel got down next to Ellie, and she reached both of her arms up to clutch Joel's shoulders tightly. He looked at Ellie and he could see lines of tears glistening down her face as her awful cries made his stomach church. He put his hands on Ellie's cheeks, and felt tears start running out of his eyes too as he was reliving the day he lost Sarah with the girl who came to be his second daughter. "Ellie, stay with us. You're gonna be okay, just please keep holdin' on."

"Joel," Maria said sadly, "she's been shot in the stomach. She won't make it." His worst nightmare was coming true. It was not even six hours ago when they had the conversation in the cabin, and the thought of having to euthanize Ellie had been haunting him ever since. In the same day, he would have to act on it. "I'm so sorry. You're gonna have to put her down."

Joel had told Ellie that if she was dying and suffering, that we would put her out of her misery. But now that she actually was, he realized that he simply could not do it. "Maria, I can't."

"Joel, she'll be dead in minutes. Don't let her suffer any longer than she has to."

"Just k-k-k-kill me, Joel," Ellie somehow managed to say though her crying. "I've... m-m-made peace with... knowing I'm g-gonna d-d-die."

Ellie had made her decision, and if Joel really did love her, he would have to honor it. She was dying, and clearly suffering, and she had come to terms with the knowledge that the end was imminent for her. Joel put his hand on top of Ellie's head and stroked her hair one last time. "I love you, Ellie." It was the first time he had ever said that to her, and it would also be the last. Ellie did not respond, but continued crying in pain.

Joel stood up with his revolver in his hand, mentally preparing himself for the task he was being presented with. Mercy killing was not something he was new to, but he never thought he'd have to do it to someone who meant so much to him. Finally accepting that putting Ellie out of her misery was the right thing to do, he raised it, and set her head in his sights. Before he could pull the trigger, he blinked, and when he opened his eyes back up, he was no longer pointing his gun at Ellie. He was pointing it at Sarah.

He jumped back when he saw that it was his own daughter he was getting ready to shoot. "Don't shoot me, Daddy! I don't wanna die!" Sarah screamed out. Joel's heart rate sped up even more than it already was. He blinked again, and it was once again Ellie lying in front of him. It just kept getting worse for him. As if having to put down Ellie wasn't bad enough, he was hallucinating that she was his long dead daughter.

"What are you waiting for?" Ellie cried. "Don't make me suffer. Just e-e-end it."

The hallucinations were only delaying the inevitable, and letting them get to him would just make Ellie suffer for longer. He raised the gun again, trying not to let the hallucinations phase him, until again Ellie morphed into Sarah, causing Joel to jump back again. "You wouldn't kill your own daughter, would you?"

It was the classic angel vs. devil scenario, only far more sinister, because he did not know who was the angel and who was the devil. There was Ellie, trying to convince him to do the right thing and end her suffering. Then there was Sarah, trying to convince him that if he loved her, he couldn't kill her. Regardless of who he listened to, the result would be Ellie's death. It was just a matter of whether or not it came quickly, or slowly.

"Joel," Maria called to get his attention. He could not hear her. "Joel!"

Suddenly, Joel felt the ground give way, as he slid down the short muddy slope into the flowing stream beside the road. He wasn't paying attention to where he was walking, and walked off the road into the drainage ditch.

"Shit!" Ellie called out as she and Maria ran over to him. Joel sat up in the stream in shock from his wretched daydream, and took a moment to regain his bearings. "What the hell was that about?"

Joel was still not sure if he was back in reality, but when he looked and saw that the bus where he feared the ambush would be was well behind them, he realized that it was all in his head. "I uh... I lost myself for a sec." He still didn't feel like he could explain what was causing him to keep daydreaming.

"Obviously," Maria said. "Now come on, get outta there."

Joel steadied himself mentally and attempted to get out of the ditch. When he tried to climb up the slope, his foot slipped in the mud, and he found himself in the drink again. Maria offered a hand to him, but he brushed it off. On the second attempt, he was able to successfully climb up.

"Are you okay?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"No twisted ankle or anything?"

"No."

Ellie got in between Joel and Maria, and confronted him about his recent behavior. "What's the deal with you lately? You've been staring off into space, you've been running into things, and you just walked right into a ditch."

"I've just... got a lot on my mind."

"Don't think you're gonna just leave it at that, Joel. You're gonna have to tell Maria and me at some point."

"I know that," Joel said. He was not appreciative of Ellie's assertion, but he knew she was right. "Maria, could you give Ellie and I some space? Let us talk one on one?"

"Absolutely," she responded. She walked away out of earshot, leaving Joel to confide with Ellie.

He looked at Ellie, and tried to find a way to bring up what was on his mind. With a sigh, he began explaining. "When we were in the cabin this mornin', you said that if you were ever suffering, and knew you were gonna die, you'd want me to put you out of your misery. Did you mean that?"

After only a second's thought, Ellie started nodding. "Yeah, I meant it. Why do you ask? You said you'd do it."

"I know, but..." He bowed his head, and sighed heavily. The weight of that responsibility was too much for him. "I don't think I'd be able to."

Ellie sighed with exasperation and shook her head. "Joel, when I told you to kill me if I was already dying, that's just as much to help you as it would be for me."

"How would it help me?"

"Because I know you wouldn't be able to bear seeing me suffer. Especially after Sarah. It would be a much more humane way to go. Would you really rather sit there and watch me suffer? Or would you end it quickly?"

"Ellie, I just don't know."

"Well, I think I do. I know you too well. If you really had to, you'd put me out of my misery."

Joel saw no point in trying to debate it. It was unlikely that they'd be faced with a situation where having to put down Ellie was an option. There was no point in trying to decide whether or not he'd be able to do it. "Okay."

"Is that all you wanted to talk about?" she asked.

"Yeah," Joel nodded. Now that he had talked to Ellie about her request, he felt a weight be lifted off of him. He felt like now he could focus on reaching their goal, instead of dwelling on something that may not ever happen. Regardless, he was going to cherish the fact that Ellie was alive, because anything could happen.

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**That concludes chapter 4 of Walk With Me In Hell. Stay tuned for chapter 5.**

**Remember, reviews keep the story going. So leave a few quick thoughts, and follow/favorite too. And check out my blog if you're a music fan.**


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